Stop Blaming Veganism for You Not Being VeganVegan Lifestyle Articles From All-Creatures.org

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Sometimes ex vegans' bodies talk to them by making them lethargic and hungry
all the time; other times their bodies speak to them in their dreams and
tell them to eat the flesh, muscle, and tissues of cows. Seriously. That’s
some sound medical science, right there. If I listened to my body, I’d
subsist on tequila, chocolate, and vegan cupcakes. Luckily, I also have an
intellect and a heart, one of which advises me to have a well-rounded diet,
and the other advises me not to take the lives or property of fellow
sentient individuals.

Lately (again) some ex-“vegans” are in the media proclaiming their love
of eating animals. The usual reason for them going back to exploiting
animals, though they still maintain their love for them, is they listened to
their bodies and their bodies told them that they must eat animals or they
will perish. Or something very close.

Sometimes ex vegans' bodies talk to them by making them lethargic and hungry
all the time; other times their bodies speak to them in their dreams and
tell them to eat the flesh, muscle, and tissues of cows. Seriously. That’s
some sound medical science, right there.

If I listened to my body, I’d subsist on tequila, chocolate, and vegan
cupcakes. Luckily, I also have an intellect and a heart, one of which
advises me to have a well-rounded diet, and the other advises me not to take
the lives or property of fellow sentient individuals. If I listened to my
dreams, well, that would be a nightmare.

And what is it with the ex-“vegans” who eat the flesh of a person and are
magically cured of whatever plagued them? I hate to inform you, but there is
no Vitamin Meat. Let’s keep in mind that obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart
disease, hypertension, and high cholesterol are all at epidemic levels in
the United States. Let’s also keep in mind that at best one percent of the
population is vegan. I think it’s fair to say that eating meat, dairy, and
eggs does not equate to being healthy.

Literally every week some plant-based diet blogger goes public, declaring
that they were wrong, eating animals is awesome, and not unethical. Or they
are careful to point out that now they only eat happy meat now.

Of course the media jumps all over stories of ex-“vegans” because it
fills their desire to paint veganism as unrealistic, unachievable for mere
mortals, extreme, wacky, unhealthy, you name it. And they really sink their
teeth into stories where the hero happens to directly blame veganism for
their eating disorders.

One ex-“vegan,” whom I shall call The Blonde Exploiting Animals for Money
and Fame, went on a long juice fast and felt great, so she decided to become
“vegan,” i.e. eat a plant-based diet. And because she was young and
attractive, she got a lot of attention online and realized she could make
money off of the backs of animals by selling t-shirts. She ate a plant-based
diet for one year. Then, when her body told her to eat animals again, she
went to the media, painting herself as a victim of veganism: veganism caused
her eating disorder.

I must make two things very clear. First, veganism is not a diet.
Veganism is “a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of,
and cruelty to, the animal kingdom” that recognizes that nonhuman animals
have the right to bodily autonomy and the freedom to not be oppressed or
exploited by others. Second, eating disorders are very serious and prevalent
mental illnesses in our culture. I do not in any way want to minimize how
destructive they can be to the person with the disorder and those who love
them.

It’s clear from reading her blog that she had an eating disorder well
before she ever started eating a plant-based diet, and like most of these
highly vocal ex-“vegans,” ate an extremely restrictive plant-based diet.
They are very forthcoming about this fact, because they believe that
restrictive diets are purer, cleaner, more perfect.

Guess what? This fixation on perfection and purity ultimately becomes
onerous, tiring, annoying. It becomes hard to maintain. No wonder when they
“listened to their body,” it told them to eat a damn cupcake and move on.
It’s not veganism’s fault, it’s these bizarrely strict, out-of-balance diets
that exclude so much of the variety, diversity, and fun of vegan foods.

I view this as a symptom of exaggerating the health benefits of
plant-based diets. When we focus on weight loss, clear skin, shiny hair,
detox, increased energy, great sexual prowess, perfect health including
never getting cancer, heart disease, diabetes, or other chronic diseases,
when we say eating a plant-based diet will make you attractive and popular
and help you live to be a hundred years old, we make it very attractive to
people with orthorexia, body dysmorphia, or low self-esteem. (Who the hell
wants to live to one hundred? I digress.)

And lets face it, the health and vanity angle is pretty much all we hear
about in the culture about veganism – certainly not the ethical position.

We must also look at the dozens if not hundreds of “vegan” and
plant-based diet “gurus” who help to perpetuate these exaggerated health
claims and distract us from the ethical message. Some have no initials after
their names indicating any education or training, and others have multiple
initials but are still out to demonize vegan food. You see them everywhere,
from social media, to health webinars, to VegFests, to your email inboxes.
They are the ones touting a plant-based diet that is highly restrictive. No
oil, sugar, or salt. Gluten is the devil. Soy will give you man boobs, or
breast cancer. Cooked food is poison. Green smoothies are bad for you. Fat
will kill you. Nuts will kill you. You must cleanse. You must juice. You
must fast. You must do 80/10/10. You must pay for my coaching, my books,
DVDs, cooking classes, weekend intensives, etc.

What all of these gurus have in common, aside from making money off of
people’s vulnerabilities, is that that they perpetuate the idea of their
brand of restrictive diet as the perfect diet, the magical diet that will
turn you into a supermodel, help you find the perfect mate, shield you from
disease forever, and more.

When the gurus, ex-“vegan” bloggers, and those who follow restrictive
diets publicly shame perfectly good and sometimes healthy foods, they create
a lot of confusion about what is vegan and what is not. Mentoring people for
The Thinking Vegan, I have seen this confusion firsthand. Is gluten vegan?
Yes. Is oil vegan? Yes. Can I eat processed foods? Yes.

Ethical vegans, who may or may not care about reaching perfect levels of
health or having a bikini body, frequently endure attacks for eating
processed foods, oil, cooked food, baked goods, etc. We’re accused of
harming the movement unless we look a certain way. I’ve covered this topic
multiple times and don’t need to revisit it here.

The last thing we want to do as vegans and activists is to give the
impression that a plant-based diet is highly restrictive. The average person
already perceives our diets as restrictive just from omitting animal
products. As an ethical vegan, I don’t give a shit what you eat, as long as
you aren’t eating animal products. What you eat or don’t eat is your
business and should remain that way. It’s important for us to stay focused
on the nonhuman animals who are confined, tortured, mutilated and killed for
people’s tastes, pleasure and traditions: not health claims, demonizing
perfectly good foods, and perpetuating restrictive diets.

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